Relative Purchasing Power Trumps Gold Price

Relative Purchasing Power Trumps Gold Price

Simon Mikhailovich charts the rise in global populism and creeping signs of totalitarianism, both in politics and in finance, to question the viability of fiat currency, along with the implications of the titanic global debt. Against this backdrop, Simon outlines the opportunity in gold to protect purchasing power to be redeployed at the height of hysteria as history proves how short memories are. Filmed on April 12, 2017, in New York.

To RV:
Just a suggestion, instead of an interview format with Simon just let him talk about 10 things he thinks we should all know.
I believe this would not only be informative but it would be interesting insight to the individual and those things that matter to them. Just a suggestion; otherwise really enjoyed the interview.

That 44 minute interview flew by in what seemed like 44 seconds. Simon Mikhailovich brought a unique perspective and considerable wisdom to RV that was extremely valuable to me. Please get Simon back on RV for another round. Thanks.

Always an insightful interview with Simon. The narrative he lays out is so clear and logical. I'm an investor in TBR and made that commitment after a lot of research into other modes of purchasing gold or rights thereto.

I always take time to listen when Simon speaks.
One thing that came to me during the course of this interview was the realization that there is, typically, a rather notable difference between those analysts who regard gold as the supreme financial asset, and those who do not.
It has been my observation that those inclined to regard gold as the ONLY Tier One currency also tend, in comparison with their ideological opponents, to be considerably better versed in not only macro-economic history, but also the history of nations and peoples, as well as the study of sociology and human psychology. Simon clearly falls into that category.
It is, I believe, no coincidence that the transformation of the west into a debt-fueled consumption society has been accompanied by a catastrophic loss of longer term macro-historical perspective. Consumed by its obsession with immediate gain, contemporary western culture has not only failed to learn from history, it has discounted to near extinction the teaching of history.
Or, as the verse from Ecclesiastes Simon cited expresses this thought:
"There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after." (Ecclesiastes 1:11, KJV)
That passage immediately follows this one, which, I believe, possesses predictive power concerning what shall yet come to pass:
"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us."

Simon is not only a clever and original thinker and a very entertaining speaker. His grand theme continues to be that the modern fiat money system is doomed. But if that is true is the only answer gold?

yes I would love top hear Simon's views on BitCoin - I do not own BitCoin, I don't even really understand it, my feelings are it's nonsense but... maybe I'm wrong and would love to hear what Simon thinks.

Solid mind. His sense of the meandering global revolt against established institutions and policies as being of a unified purpose (even if not precisely guided by any single set of ideas) is dead on. - Michael Oliver/Momentum Structural Analysis

I agree totally that this "fincial crisis" has been a series of heart attacks that will end in the death of the patient in this case the US dollar; however I think the problem did not start in the 1970's and that Nixon closing the gold window in 1971 was just the first heart attack. The problem started in the 1960's and it was directly caused by the Vietnam War and the expansion of social welfare programs - both of which the US could not afford, but did anyway and WHY? - this is when the heart disease began. It was also in the 1950's and 60's that the IMF and World Bank began to use debt as a weapon against third world countries that had resources that US corporations coveted. Michael Hudson spoke of this in a previous video when he talked of his time at Chase working for David Rockefeller. When this all goes down (which mathmatically we know it has to) the IMF will be the world central bank that comes to the rescue and the US will be sitting where Greece is today. Our country will be forced to privtize our infastructure, that same infastructure Donald Trump will have spent trillions of public money fixing and it will be sold for pennies on the dollar. I mean look at Trump's commerce secretary Wilbur Ross -- this is his area of expertise , he made his billions as a vulture capitalist strip mining assests from the steel industry in the 1980's and 90's. Context is everything - this has been a slow deliberate rope of debt that has been wrapped around the neck of the American people so that they can hang themselves. Best way to destroy something is not by cutting benefits (people will object) so the best way is to over promise and bankrupt it. We will see if the populist movements around the world will stop the neoliberal policies that have brought countries to their knees - - Couldn't agree more that in today's world gold is a must have type of insurance.

Afraid not all immigrants are equal in terms of economic contribution. Some create value, others destroy it. Immigrants of the past entered the country under very different circumstances than they do today. There were no social services to rely on, but now, these services are facilitating a huge transfer of wealth. This just shifts consumption away from taxpayers to welfare recipients. Since much of it is funded with govt debt it also pulls future consumption into the present and competes with the private sector, bidding up the cost of capital.

People are more than economic units. We aren't interchangeable like other forms of capital. A society is held together by various types of social glue, and the more groups with real differences you have living in proximity, the less trust and social capital your society will have. Read the sociological work of Putnam on this topic.

IMO, immigration can only jack up the GDP to the extent that you have a very libertarian economy with a great deal of disbursed prosperity. Individual agency. Otherwise people overly depend on all kinds stuff that gets unworkable after time. There is no such thing in the West of course.

He introduced the concept of gold's purchasing power vis-a-vis the depreciating dollar. The price of gold can remain the same as dollar purchasing power declines. It happened in the past. I could also happen in the future.

What a pleasure it is to see and hear wisdom, that rarest of precious commodities. My only complaint: The interview was too short! More, please, more. Perhaps a new interview category ("Deep") in which great minds are given 2 hours to elucidate and communicate their ideas. With Simon the first guest, of course.

Simon Mikhailovich, I own a good slug of the Toqueville Gold Fund. I notice in the holdings of TGF a listing for the item "Physical Gold", would that possibly be in the TBR? I would like to think so as TBR sounds great! Thanks if you can confirm.

Richard, Some of the gold that Tocqueville Gold Fund owns is indeed in TBR, although it is not the bulk of the position. The rest is kept at a secure logistics company and is outside the financial system.